What If Diaries

08/25/2013

It astonishes and fills me with wonder to look at, drink in, and sometimes be bathed in it's light ~ the moon. After stitching a dreamscape of my favourite island, Etolin - watching the Blue Moon - itching to get stitching, I recalled these fabulous Lunar Exploration Geologic maps. Letting the names "roll off the tongue" is delicious and makes me laugh out loud with delight.

Mare Undarum (Sea of Waves). Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fecundity or Fruitfulness). Mare Spumans (Sea of Foam). Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises). ﻿﻿How the place names were selected, legends, and so much more... all of that you can see here.

Circles of passion, inspiration, joy, and maps of another kind that seem to naturally follow a "moon fascination": glorious moon stitching , such as a "grace" moon, or a Jude Hill "new moon story" and oh so. many. more artisans of cloth, stitch and moon stitching. So, my love of maps, mountains, seas, carries on, or continues, being stitched joyfully, into-onto-within, the fabric of my life. Circles within circles, making circles. Exuberantly living!

My sister and I find ourselves"sick with longing" for Alaska in July. We describe the feeling as "one foot in concrete, the other one flailing to get free"...

I had this beautifully hand dyed fabric from Deb laying on my table one evening. That night I had a dream - I believe sparked by this fabric - that I was flying at 5,000 feet over my favourite island, Etolin, and landing on Navy Lake, which our family always referred to as "Gem Lake". I started stitching the next day, before I found my topo maps, what I had seen in my dream. Lots of fun stitching and "winging" the lumpy bits. After stitching, I compared to the maps and charts that I still have.To me, the stitching sampler and the topo maps are quite similar with respect to topography and land shapes.

I've missed not being able to fly any longer, but this bit of cloth makes me feel like I've just gone flying. I rather like it.

Running stitch sampler, made while watching game 2 of the Stanley Cups ~ Boston vs Chicago ~ AND with beautiful Mount Baker in the distance. Lace doily scrap between backing (harem cloth) and scrap cotton, white, light grey, dark grey embroidery floss. Learning how to show depth and texture using monochrome colour, as well as stitch what I love. Not a story yet, or maybe it IS the story!

Summer colour

sunny colour

Stamina: Latin, plural of stamen warp, thread of life spun by the Fates. Definition and origin found here.

Stamina: the ability to last for a decent amount of time when doing an activity ~ defined here.

06/12/2013

...The strongest sinew of all secret hurts, seemed the obvious choice with which to bind the bones securely, but then the silken threads of desire, the forgotten strings of unsung songs, the endless reels of self-doubt, the ragged ribbons of wanton abandon, the taut twine of guilt, the clueless cords of naivety, all cried out for urgent inclusion.

05/31/2013

This is beginning of my "Whispering White" exploration, the first section of Jude Hill's What If Diaries. It will mellow for a few days, while I look at it in different lights and from different angles, to see where and what comes next, or gets left behind?

In the meantime, I want to get caught up a bit on topics posted after the first 6 or 7. I am so pleased I started by making the Spirit Cloth 101 sampler ~ wonderful preparation and foundation for the "What If Diaries" segments.with the light behind

Nine-patch on a circle ~ detail.

partial applique ~ a tiny "whole-cloth quilt" on the clothes line

﻿﻿window ... something you look through, either literally or metaphorically, to see what is on the other side

05/22/2013

I thought I saw a birdhouse in this tea-stained cotton piece, which now has a woven "thatch roof" ready to attach.

This small tea-stained cotton weaving, is lightly glue-stitched together for now. It is just laid over the first piece ~ might do for a sort-of clapboard-ish bird house siding, with a circle out of center of the weaving, and attached over the dark-ish center in the first piece.

After sitting a spell, these cloths may change their mind and want to be something else.

Last week, Mr. BaggyPants rummaged around one of the ragbags in his shop, and dragged a couple of old rags into the house. Whoa Nellie! I had no clue they still existed! He called them "my 'I love you treasures'"! ahem....

This mended stripey shirt (one of his from the last century) is called a hickory shirt, worn by "Dirt Shirts" (loggers and contruction dudes and dudettes) for as long as I can remember ~ they wear like iron and are just the best work shirts. Maybe you can see that the frayed collar has been mended, and turned, at least twice.

He's kept the darned thing for years ~ his looking at my little Spirit Cloth sampler sent him on a search to find his "I Love You" treasures.

The mended plaid is one of my old Woolrich flannel shirts, patched with pieces from one of Mr. BaggyPants worn out tee-shirts. I recall tearing this shirt on a joist hanger while building one of his shops in Alaska. Again, last century!

04/05/2013

What a fabulous week! Started out by jetting (well, in my ol' truck actually) off to Anacortes and catch the ferry to Friday Harbor. Beautiful trip - lots of fog on the way intermittently mixed with spots of sunshine here and there. We stayed at the most delightful spot - the EarthBox Inn and Spa, a most lovely room complete with a kitchenette, table and chairs. After a wonderful foray through the heavenly King Market, settled in for the evening, which in part consisted of my getting the whole spiel of WHY I need to have an I-Pad. Lots of laughing and telling stories, accompanied by sporadic cackling and shrieking - I believe we kept the next-door honeymoon couple (cute as the dickens) up til the wee hours.

Orange bikes at EarthBox Inn

Orange bikes in black and white - the fog moisture made the wheel spokes look as if they had diamonds attached!

In the early morning sunshine, a wondrously shiny row of hotel-provided guest bikes - purple and orange - was really gorgeous. I didn't have a helmet or elbow pads or I would have happily given one of them a go. What a grand idea for an inn in a small town. The landscaping was beautifully done, and in the dusk-y evening, a curving row of jasmine trees smelled delicious. The weather was SPECTACULAR! Cool, clear, sunny. A really good wander around town - had to check out Donna Reed's gourd baskets at the Island gallery, fondle yarn and such at Island Wool, a razzle-dazzle go at Dream Beads (maybe not the correct name) and a art-y swoop through Vital Elements, close to, if not where I remembered, a shop I think was called Gorouda? sounded like Gouda (as in cheese). A few purchases at a "previously loved" store and a Cotton Cotton shop with must-haves.

Walked down to ferry dock looking for "eats" and was really enchanted with the design of this siding.

We caught the ferry to carry on our rattling around and nefarious shenanigans around the Emerald City, including but not limited to shopping, eating, libation testing and general happy prowling around. Woe is me - I had left my camera charger in the room when we checked out, so I don't have photos of tulips, trumpeter swans and tundra geese (the laggards of migration I'd think), or any of the rest of the week’s jaunts. What a terrific pick-me-up trip after a gruelingly grey winter.

Last two pix are of shawls I knitted for the Seesters. They loved them - the red needed ends woven in, but wait for that? Not. Now I'm home having a "happiness hangover", ready to knit, sew, plant, mow, and catch up on What-If Diaries. Can. Not. Wait. to see what all the What-If fibre artists have been up to!

03/27/2013

Well looky here! My Mam's, great-Mam's, and my doilies airing in sunshine! All shades of whites, some yellowed by time, some tea-stained or unknown-stained. Several are in remarkable condition, but all have been well loved.

Terrific creative inspiration from so many folk in the What-If Diaries and how they are exploring white - I like this alot.

At the north end of my property are these White Birch. Late evening the crows all gather and talk about the day, groom each other, settle down, talk to me (if I have my red plaid flannel shirt on...) How I love these trees.

Two of my "SEESTERS" have swooped in unexpectedly ~ with all their gorgeous finery-fripperies-bibelots ~ from their McMansions and Snowbird Cottages (cackle shriek) and are dragging me kicking and screaming away from my solitaire hermit-ly existence ~ okay I doth protest outwardly, but inwardly and exuberantly gleeful ~ on our annual jaunt. A month earlier than usual, but I'll TAKE it!

Off to the San Juan Islands for a few days, then a "surprise" destination... I'm certain we'll fill their extra luggage with forays at antique and junk shops, bead-yarn-string-jewelry-shoe shopping. Oh I will be dragged into some upscale clothing store - they are appalled at my ragged skivvies on the line, and patched sweatshirts. Tickled me no end to plow through the bags of treasure and booty from Whole Paycheck (aka Whole Foods) of all sorts! Whoopee! Be back first of (or later) next week. Go careful, y'all!